sundries

That’s what’s up

Now that the 2012 season is over, I’m breaking my post season silence.

The San Francisco are the 2012 World Series Champions.

Holy crap, y’all.

I don’t even know where to begin this blog. My brain is full of so many emotions right now that I’m finding it difficult to sort through them all. I wanted to post after the NLDS. After the NLCS. Especially after the NLCS. Oh, friends. So many words to say.

NLDS

The post season made me nervous. I thought about the Diamondbacks last year and how they lost the NLDS. I thought about how I wasn’t ready for the Giants season to be over. I thought about a great many things, and then I did a lot of worrying. Like, massive amounts of it. After two dismal games at home, the boys flew to Cincinnati, where I was sure our asses would get handed to us in the third game. I didn’t want to be discouraged, but it was hard not to be. I remember @gggiants tweeting that we shouldn’t give up. I decided to hang my hat on his tweet.

Then Game 3 happened. The stories came out about Hunter Pence’s pre-game speech, about the passion he displayed when he expressed that he wasn’t ready to stop playing yet. That he wanted one more day with the best team he’s ever played with. We won that game. And the next one. And the next one.

It doesn’t get much better than that, right? Coming back from a 2-0 deficit to clinch the LDS?

NLCS

I assumed our momentum would take us strong into this series against the Cards. I assumed the scare in Cincinnati would be motivation enough for us to not get our backs against a wall again. Clearly the Giants like to prove me wrong. At this point the post season, we were becoming more superstitious. Despite being a big user of social media, I resisted the #RallyZito movement when it began circulating on Twitter the night after Lincecum’s rough outing in St. Louis. I’ve really come to respect and enjoy Barry Zito this season but #RallyZito? Really? He’s not even on Twitter.

But then…I went for it. Updated Twitter and Facebook with the same picture of Zito. Tweeted with the hash tag. I think most Giants fans will agree that Game 5 of the NLCS was the changing tide for the team. Zito’s performance topped with Lincecum’s uneffingbelievable performance seemed to ignite something in the team. It got out on Twitter after the game that Ryan Vogelsong eats chicken enchiladas the night before each start. And #RallyEnchiladas was born.

Funny story about that: I had planned, on Friday night (Zito’s game), that I was going to make chicken enchiladas. Because of the time difference, the game started right as I was getting off work and instead of taking all the time to go buy ingredients for enchiladas, I opted to go straight home and watch the game. We’d have enchiladas on Saturday night, for the game, if there was going to be one. I know, right? Scary awesome coincidence.

The final game of the NLCS is one of my favorite games of baseball I’ve seen. Between the unreal rain, the rainbows, the amazing plays on defense by the Giants, and then that final moment in the 9th inning when Marco Scutaro opened his arms, tilted his head back, looked toward the sky, and welcomed the deluge. I cannot think of a more perfect sports moment than that. It was like something out of a movie. Unreal. Unreal.

World Series

This is my first full year of being a Giants fan. First full where I went from the end of the last season to the final out of the next season, following everything I could about the team. Contract signings, trades, spring training, first pitch to final out. I can’t sum this feeling up accurately. Not right now. Not while I have a thousand things to think about and say and read and watch and rewatch.

But I want to say this about this team: you can’t buy this kind of chemistry. You can’t buy this kind of connection, this kind of bond. These guys love each other. You can tell by how they interact with one another, how they hug one another. How gently they cradle a weeping Sergio Romo in their arms, his face pressed to their shoulders. This team is my team. My very first, absolute favorite Giants team. I’ve been told every fan has one. That one team that you love, from beginning to end. And this team is it. The 2012 San Francisco Giants.